Thirteen of the 25 Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee voted on Tuesday to advance a bill that seeks to repeal a law that the Biden administration weaponized to silence and jail peaceful pro-life activists.
Every GOP member of the House Judiciary Committee claims to be pro-life in some form or fashion, but as of March, only a handful, most bill co-sponsors, committed publicly to support the FACE Act Repeal Act. Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who introduced the legislation, previously threatened to “file a discharge petition” and “try to move the bill, irrespective of the normal procedures” if the GOP did not act on it soon.
During markup, however, the Republicans on the committee voted to recommend favorably the legislation to the House of Representatives for a chamber-wide vote.
The Republicans’ advancement of the FACE Act Repeal Act pushes Congress one step closer to eradicating a law that, despite former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s assertion, targeted people opposed to ending life in the womb more than 90 percent of the time. Crimes such as assault, threats of injury, disorderly conduct, and trespassing are already barred by states and localities, so it was the FACE Act’s existence alone that emboldened the Biden regime to bring 55 of its 60 FACE Act prosecutions against Americans who prayed, sang, and evangelized at abortion facilities.
President Donald Trump pardoned nearly two dozen of the pro-lifers who were targeted by the radical abortion administration that preceded him. Mere days into Trump’s second term, U.S. Attorney General Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle also issued a memo announcing the Trump administration’s commitment to only use the FACE Act in “extraordinary circumstances, or in cases presenting significant aggravating factors.”
“Cases not presenting significant aggravating factors can adequately be addressed under state or local law. Additionally, until further notice, no new abortion-related FACE Act actions — criminal or civil — will be permitted without authorization from the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division,” the memo concluded.
Thomas More Society Executive Vice President and General Counsel Andrew Bath told The Federalist, however, that the Trump administration’s effective “deweaponization” of the FACE Act “doesn’t mean there’s no good reason to repeal it.”
“One thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that, by its own terms, [the FACE Act] is enforceable by state attorneys general,” Bath explained in a phone interview. “So I can give you a bunch of reasons to repeal it. Letitia James, Rob Bonta, Kwame Raoul, Keith Ellison, and I can go on.”
Already, New York Attorney General Letitia James targeted Red Rose Rescue sidewalk counselors under both the FACE Act and the New York Clinic Access Act, a state-level “equivalent” to the federal statute. A U.S. district court judge eventually rejected the attempt to ban the pro-lifers from exercising their First Amendment rights, but his ruling did not necessarily disqualify a future case from arising.
The pro-life movement has repeatedly noted that the Republican-controlled Congress’s failure to repeal the FACE Act would enable future administrations to replicate the Biden DOJ’s abuse of power by charging and imprisoning people who are committed to protecting life beginning at conception.
A coalition of some of the biggest life advocates reaffirmed that position to the House Judiciary Committee in a letter ahead of the markup on Tuesday.
“Repealing the FACE Act in its entirety is an excellent step in ensuring that never again will pro-life activists have the FBI knock on their front door simply for standing up for the most vulnerable in society,” the letter stated.